The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-19
WATER BALLAST.
New system of Naval Construction Cap
sizing made Impossible.
Washington Cor Boston Herald.

sizing made Impossible.
Washington Cor. Boston Herald.
There is much talk here of new in
ventions of various sorts. | have written
recently of the graphophone, which has
been very handsomely put upon the
market by the original owners OF it.
The Mergenthaler printing machine.
which does away with typesettinS. IL
another enterprise engineered in Wash
ington and supposed To have possible
millions in it. great many new en-
terpriscs are being launched here.
There is an American Telephone Com
pany." which the department clerks are
invited to put few hundred thousand
dollars into, in order to confer the bless
the people of Venezuela. This
Is very fishy scheme. in
deed, to look at. There is Il
remarkable company, called the AR
row Shipbuilding Company" with head
quarters at Alexandria, which employs
"A man named Connolly, who used to edit
one of John Stetsons papers up in Court
street, to do the Colonel Sellers act for
the benefit of the crowds who go down
to see the strip of river bank where
steamships that will almost jump the
Atlantic at a bound are presently To
''eventuate." The enterprise seems to
me better adapted to the navigation of
the air than the sea. If the company
ever builds ship, and can keep up its
blowing at the present rate. it
will hardly he necessary to oper-
ate the engines They will just
go right along of themselves.
But there is one enterprise here which
really seems to have deal of solid
merit. / refer to the Norton system of
building ships. yachts, and especially
life boats. This company has success
full and practical man at its head. and
the-invention which it is developing has
already gained large degree of support
and recognition. Both in Europe and
the United States. Captain Norton, the
inventor. proposes To give to vessels of
and stability by his system of wa
ter ballast. He builds series
of air chambers in the sides of his vessel.
with an orifice at the lowest point. As
the vessel sinks in the water the water
enters the air chamber. COMPRISING the
air. which acts as an elastic cushion,
preventing To a large degree the rolling
and unsteadiness which are encountered
whenever the vessel goes into rough
water. When the vessel tips to the star
board the air in the chamber on that
side is compressed and tends to buoy it
up. while the water which Is retained i'm
the chambers on the port side acts
ballast to prevent it from rising much
above its normal position. Even small
boats built in this way are practically
nOn-sinkable as well as non-capsiZable.
Capt. Norton believes that as soon rs
it becomes fully understood that
yachts built upon his plan are absolutely
safe from being upset by a squall, no one
will build pleasure boat except opon
his system. He has formed a company
with the moderate capital of S2JO.OOO,
which owns the rights for New York.
New Jersey and the New England states.
and this company is already paying II
per cent. upon the invested capital. An
other company has been formed with
the headquarters here to control the
rights for Maryland and the southern At
lantic coast. Several small vessels are
now in course of construction at Alex
andria. and the company is going ahead
prOSperously. Capt. Patten. of Maine.
the late commissioner of navigation.
tells me that he regards the system
as a very valuable one and he expects
to see it generally introduced. Captain
Norton. who is a wealthy man himself,
has received very fiattering official re-
ports from several foreign countries, and
has reason tn believe that the adoption of
his system for life boats is probable all
over Europe. He is convinced that il can
Ire applied to armor-clad ships, and that
they can he rendered nOn-sinkable by
means of it. Many naval officers who
have examined it are convinced that his
ideas are sound, and some of them have
invested considerable sums of money in
the stock of the parent company and of
the Virginia company also. The ship
builders of Bath have been looking into
it. and it is expected that boat building
on this system will begin on a large
scale in the vicinity of Boston soon.